Deeply

Deeply is a romantic tragedy that tells the story of two different young women, "Claire" and "Silly". There are three simultaneous plot threads going at the same time. So you have to pay attention. The film was written and directed by Sherri Elwood and was released in theatres in the year 2000.

The basic story revolves around a cursed island, and the lost loves of Claire and Silly. Kirsten plays the part of Silly (as do 5 other actresses, as Silly is shown at many different ages, but it is mostly Kirsten). From the very beginning you just get the feeling that there is not going to be a happy ending for any of the characters involved. Claire is a young girl who is brought to a mostly abandoned island community by her mother, after a tragedy had befallen her (which we don't get to completely understand until the end).

Claire is the perfectly depressed teenage girl. Her world has ended as far as she is concerned, and no one can do anything about it. She mopes, and rarely speaks unless it is something negative. As a matter of fact, all the main characters of this film share one trait, they rarely speak. Much of this story is told visually, at least half the time no one will be talking at all, and of the remaining time it will usually just be the narrator (which is Cecila/Old Silly). Claire makes a few half assed suicide attempts during the film, but you never actually get the feeling that she is going to go through with it.

Claire meets up with Cecilia, who is a rather bitter old woman who lives on the island. Cecilia is a writer and ends up telling Claire one of her stories. The story that Cecilia tells is the story of "Silly", who was a young girl who lived on the island 50 years before. Now Cecilia and Silly are the same person, which is something you will probably figure out long before the movie actually tells you. This begins the second plot thread of the film, which is the story of Silly.

Silly (played by Kirsten Dunst), was cursed from birth. Her mother dies at a young age and she loses the ability to sleep at age three. She simply stops sleeping after going in the ocean and seeing something (her eyes change color at the same time). Silly is strong willed, has a thick accent, and smokes a pipe. She eventually falls in love with the son of a British Navy Admiral. I am not going to ruin that part by explaining it beforehand, because it is one of the least predictable sections of the movie.

The third plot thread of the film is figuring out Claire's backstory. This part of the film is told entirely through flashbacks. The first one is brief, and shown after Claire picks up her violin, they become longer and more involved as the movie progresses, finally giving you the entire story at the very end of the film. The first clue to what happened comes when Claire changes shirts, revealing a large scar on her back .*

The entire film has an overwhelming feeling of doom hanging over it. Titanic was just plain cheerful compared to this film. Silly's entire life is just one bad thing after another, with just a brief interlude of happiness, that is cut horribly and tragically short. From very early on you figure out that there is no happy ending for Silly. The only hope for a happy ending lies in Claire, who doesn't even really seem to want one.

TheBooBooKitty's Rating

On a scale of one to 5, I give this film four Dunsts's, one boobie, zero explosions, and three kitties. Or translated into english, this film will be very enjoyable for Kirsten Dunst fans, has little nudity or action, and rates as medium overall.

*You see Claire's exposed breast when she changes shirts. This kind of shocked me, as she didn't look to be a day older than fifteen. But apparently Julia Brendler was actually 25 when this was filmed, and just looks really young.